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So what could be better than a Big Mac? A Big Mac and a glass of
wine! Well, we can try to take mere takeout and transform it into
a meal (or at least we can tell ourselves that). Seriously,
what’s wrong with pairing wine with some Mickey Ds, especially in
the summer when grabbing a snack to go sit in the park or at the
beach is just so damn convenient?

We’re not talking haute cuisine - got that - but there are wines
that will pair well with your basic McDonalds menu items. Or are
there?

So here is our first installment of Which Wine/Fast Food
version 2.0, a look at America’s convenience foods and wines they
pair with, or don’t!

For this exercise we’ve chosen a typical sampling from a
McDonald's menu and paired them with a representative selection
of wines that form a reasonable range of wines that one might
expect to pair with food that come in cardboard boats, so don’t
expect any first growths here.

2010 Trapiche
Malbec from Argentina – A gently oaked
mid-bodied wine that offers a nice balance of fruit and
oak.

2008 Red Rock Merlot
Reserve from California – A bigger scaled
fruity red, though this one combines fruit and a nice savory
element with noticeable oak.

And what did we order from McDonald's you ask? Well how
about a Filet-O-Fish, Chicken McNuggets, Grilled Chicken Ranch
BLT sandwich, a Big Mac, an Angus Deluxe and the remarkable array
of nine, yes nine, dipping sauces for the McNuggets and of course
fries, lots of fries.

As you can see, we had our hands full with this task, and
to tell you the truth, some of the results even surprised me! I
skipped trying to pair the wines with each of the dipping sauces
(most are simply too sweet to pair well with dry wines anyway),
though the Creamy Ranch Sauce is the best bet for a wine pairing
since it lacks the sugar of most and the acid of the Buffalo
Sauce.